It's a cold and cruel world we live in
by HappytheExceed
Summary: People had doubt that Yata was worth anything where he belonged. An order to kill led Fushimi & Yata to betray their clan to join Scepter 4. Yata who had inferior complex tried to find a place where he belonged as he tried to prove himself to his new King while Fushimi who was feeling uneasy drifted away from him as the clan they betrayed laid a trap for Yata to finish their job


**Blame it on Belphy and our discussion that I was inspired to write this spin-off from her one-shot "Really how do we get into these sort of things" :D. What if Fushimi and Yata were from a certain Clan and Munakata approached Fushimi to join Scepter 4. It's based on the idea that Yata is a free gift that comes with "purchase of Fushimi".**

 **T for violence. Don't read further if you can't take gore and violence.**

 **K is not mine.**

* * *

 **It's a cold and cruel world we live in**

It was a cold autumn, when the ceremony took place.

The squadman lined up in the line of the ceremony.

"Fushimi Saruhiko, to the front!" the female lieutenant called out. Fushimi proceeded to the middle of the line to front where the Blue King, Munakata Reisi was waiting.

"Take the sword, you who is worthy to be swordsman, who holds honor and faith, and vow your conduct to the sword."

Munakata held the sabre out horizontally to Fushimi.

"Even if you say so, it's neither like an honor or a vow." Fushimi said with an aloof voice.

"Hey…", Awashima started to approach him but was held back by Munakata.

Fushimi grasped the sheath with one hand from above despite being instructed to receive with two. Fushimi received new power with that.

 _"All for the sake to protect him."_ A boy with chestnut hair flashed by his mind.

It was a few weeks since he betrayed his former clan and escaped with a friend who was broken from the atrocious torture by one of their own. He was horrified how could they do that to one of their own? If it was not for a certain female ninja who led him to the facility and the pretty man smelt of cologne who aided them in their escape, he would not be standing here accepting an installation by another King who happened to find them in the street in the cold and rainy weather.

Fushimi headed to the new dorm he was sharing with his friend after the ceremony. He did not dare to enter. He was afraid of what he would see but that was not the reason he was here. Plucking his courage he opened the door. Was he having a nightmare right now? Was he in a fit? They were lucky that the Blue King who desired for his ability invited him to join his Clan. Fushimi relented in condition that he took his best friend in as well. He opened the door to be greeted by the devil he spoke of.

"Fushimi-kun, welcome back!" The man with glasses greeted him with a smile. His glasses sparkled.

"Saruhiko, you're slow. I'm going to finish up your share." A younger boy with chestnut hair with cream covering his mouth grumbled.

"Misaki, I'm back." Fushimi greeted awkwardly scratching his head. Yata Misaki looked a lot better than when he first came with Fushimi with blanket and bandage all over his body. He looked wrecked from top to toes, wounds from needles on his arms, broken ribs and swollen face.

"Congratulations for becoming an official member of Scepter 4! Captain bought a cake to celebrate for you." Yata said innocently and added, "Don't be too proud of yourself, Captain said I'll be able to participate in the next ceremony and I'll be able to fight with you again."

Fushimi did not like the words of it. Yata barely escape from another King's clutches and almost lost his life yet he was excited to jump into another wagon.

* * *

 _"I guess I wanted to prove to everyone that I wasn't weak and that I was just as good a member as you or Aya. After all I'm not smart like you or Aya, and in all honesty the only thing I'm really good at is beating people up, also it was a mission given by our King so I couldn't turn it down."_

 _"Don't worry, Yata-kun will be fine." Munakata said with a smile reassuring the boy. Of course, Munakata would not forget his promise to him when he invited Fushimi to join Scepter 4._

 _"Promise me you'll keep Misaki out of dangerous mission. After what he had gone through, he can't…" Fushimi broke down right in front of the Blue King as he watched Misaki breathing through an oxygen mask and hooked up with tubes outside the ICU where he recovered from life threatening condition inflicted by various chemicals injected in his body meant to kill him. With the assistance from the Gold Clan, Yata was able to recover physically but he would never forget all the insults threw to him when he was being played and experimented with by his former fellow clansmen._

 _"Both of you will prove to be valuable against your former clan as you know too much." Munakata commented._

* * *

It took months but Yata despite going through nightmares after moving to Scepter 4 dorm felt at ease whenever Munakata came to visit him patting his head and Yata would wag his tail like a dog. Munakata was Yata's confident whom he would share his thought to and things not even Fushimi knew.

* * *

Fushimi felt conflicted that day Yata received installation from Munakata. At the last moment, he came to give him moral support anyway and Yata smiled in relief when he saw Fushimi.

Munakata granted Yata his sabre, known as "Yatagarasu".

"Munakata-san had saved my life. I need to be useful to him." Yata's voice replayed all over his head. Fushimi minimized the time being alone with Yata as he hated to hear Yata's words of admiration for their Blue King. They joined the Blue because Munakata was the only one who could save Yata's life back then.

During the first months, Fushimi could not helped but to admit that he was amused how Yata messed up even the smallest of menial tasks Akiyama and the rest tasked him with especially admin work. Yata was never sent out to the frontline.

Yata tried to make himself useful by tidying up Scepter 4 and everybody's dorms and even cooked for them. Munakata was extremely pleased to have someone making tea with him. Yata earned himself the name of the "waifu" of Scepter 4 not long after and was well-liked by everyone in the Clan. Fushimi felt a surge of jealousy.

Fushimi did not realise Yata had been crying alone in their shared dorm whenever he was out crying about his weakness and his failed kidnap mission assigned by their former King to him alone. Yata ended up captured by the opposing clan instead.

It took quick-witted Oogai Aya who feigned injury crying for help that the kind-hearted and ridiculously weak executive of that clan Yata failed to capture to fall into the trap that they found a bargaining chip to free their friend. Fushimi was determined to find out who doubted Yata's worth to their clan but before he was able to, someone ordered Yata to be killed. Yata barely managed to escape on his own and was found dying by Fushimi in an alleyway and Fushimi finally made a decision to flee from their Clan.

Oogai did not join them in their break out; Fushimi did not want to drag her along this time.

Yata cuddled his knees to his face. He missed the time he could fight with Fushimi and Aya by his side.

* * *

One day, while Yata was cleaning Doumyouji's room, he found a mission file Doumyouji carelessly forgotten he found really familiar with. It was something he chanced upon in the control room of his former Clan. As Doumyouji was out, and no one else was available, Yata decided to prove his worth to Munakata hoping to make him proud. When he did, he would be able to request Munakata to allow him to the frontline and partner with Fushimi like he was before. He would be able to surprise Fushimi when he returned.

For the first time, Yata got to use his sabre as a member of Scepter 4.

"Yata, ready for emergency battle!" Yata was prepared to engage the Strain to a battle of life and death.

* * *

A broken arm with a watch found was addressed to Munakata later on.

Fushimi returned to Scepter 4 with Akiyama and Benzai 2 days later being assigned to sniff out a Strain in Kyoto.

"I heard an arm was found by Doumyouji and Enomoto in the location they were assigned to due to a mission. They were lucky. They could end up as the victims with amputated parts instead." Yayoi Yoshino, a girl with wide glasses and messy hair whispered to Akiyama when they walked past her. She was about to pass their Captain the watch which came with the broken arm.

"You came in at the good time, Fushimi-san, I think you're better in uncovering the mystery in the customized communicator than I'm." Yayoi approached Fushimi who was not interested looking away from her.

It was raining heavily when Hidaka and Goutou who just returned from another mission outside. It just felt weird. Hidaka just passed him by avoiding looking into his eyes as he looked away from Yayoi.

"Captain." Munakata stormed out quickly along with Awashima who seemed uptight at their Captain abnormal expression. Fushimi, Akiyama, Benzai and Yayoi stood aside allowing Munakata to pass through the corridor while the drenched Hidaka and Goutou seemed out of it.

"How was it?" Munakata asked in a serious tone. Fushimi noticed that his voice trembled in anxiousness despite his attempt to cover up.

Hidaka could not say anything but to break down in tears.

"I'm sorry, Captain." Goutou barely managed to say. Before Munakata could respond, Enomoto ran to them.

"Captain, we received communication from someone named "running nose"! They are making fun of us."

Enomoto led Munakata to the central room where the footage was played.

"Good job, in locating the limbs of one of your precious man with various puzzles I laid all over Shizume, as expected from the Blue King. It didn't even occur to you that it could be done by the rivalry Lion King of yours." The man in shadow clapped his hands at his feat. Fushimi trembled at the man's voice. It was the King he betrayed.

"If it was him, he would not leave even ash of the body. " Muankata Reisi did not even need to think to figure out the identity of "running nose". "I'm extremely put off by you."

"Say who who took my pawn away. I merely finish something I had left off halfway. Thank you for presenting my lost-and-found back to me." The shadow seemed to be grinning as his gaze fell on the petrified Fushimi.

"What did you say? I'm going to kill you." Hidaka lost his cool. "What have you done to him?!" Hidaka cried and Goutou tried to hold him back.

"He is just a worthless free gift that came with the precious pawn you and I sought after. You won't make a loss even without him." "Running nose" continued, his gaze all focused on Fushimi. The others turned their attention to Fushimi.

"If it's alright with you, I want my pawn back. He originally belonged to me. Fushimi Saruhiko, the door is always open for you. The King will be waiting. As a parting gift for the day, let me broadcast a video countrywide. This acts as a warning to those who betrayed our Clan." With that, the screen sizzled to a gross and violently sick video of a boy being tortured humiliated to death with words telling how worthless he was, after his broken arm toppled to the ground. The blood curling scream caused everyone to tense up in fear. Fushimi's eyes widened hearing the familiar voice.

The video was deleted as soon as it ended erasing all evidence which could cause threat to "running nose" operations.

"Bastard! How could he?" Hidaka wanted to head out to only be held down by Goutou and Kusuhara Takeru who came running after hearing about the video. The seething anger could be felt from the guys in Scepter 4 with some of them emptying their lunches from their stomach later on. Awashima had her arms over Yayoi. She was also in tears lamenting at the cruelty of the perpetrator.

"Mi-saki…" Fushimi muttered his name holding up the watch Yayoi passed to him earlier in disbelief. There was no doubt it was a watch made by Fushimi for Yata. He took off running. He needed to see Yata with his eyes. Fushimi ran into the room where the body was laid for autopsy. Doumyouji was shaking his head in denial. This was supposed to be his mission. Yata was not supposed to be involved.

"I'm sorry…, Fushimi-san… This was… supposed to… be my mission…" He trailed off to only earn a punch from Fushimi. Yata would not have ended up like this if he did not leave his mission brief lying around.

"Fushimi-san!" Enomoto cried helping up Doumyouji who was knocked down to the ground.

Misaki's body covered with blood, he was missing his left arm which was amputated from him.

"Misaki, it can't be. Misaki, wake up." Fushimi shook his body desperately. It should not be this way. Yata should be waiting for him in their clean and tidy dorm, with their dinner ready. Fushimi regretted not spending more time with Yata. Yata's expression told him that he was full of fear and he was in a lot of pain before he died. Fushimi cradled his bloodied and broken body into a warm hug and cried in despair.

This case ended up as a case of a member of Scepter 4 Yata Misaki falling into a trap of a random strain and was killed in action after "running nose" erased all trace of evidence.

 _"Munakata-san, I'm sorry for calling you this way. I want to thank you for taking care of Saruhiko. He can be aloof sometimes, but he's really awesome. I'm sure he'll do really well and succeed under your leadership. I'm already grateful to be taken in by you. I'm sorry I'm not worth your effort."_ Yata's words recorded on the watch were playing in a loop in Munakata's office. His "Yatagarasu" covered with blood laid on top of his desk. Munakata's expression at that moment was unreadable. That was the first time he failed. He failed his promise.

Yata Misaki merely wanted a place he could belong.

It took some time before Fushimi who had been locking himself up for weeks to finally leave his dorm upon receiving a message from someone unknown. Life without Misaki was lacking of colours.

He had nothing to lose. He would avenge Misaki with his own way since Scepter 4 would not allow him to go after his former King, Hisui Nagare himself.

He raised his head up and stared at a signboard of a certain bar which was a domain of another King in Shizume city.

* * *

 **Did anyone realise why "Running Nose" is used to address a certain person?**


End file.
